Page 112 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Three Models

1960s they were published in a literary form of Greek different from the
demotike spoken in everyday life, and the dictatorship that ruled from
1967–74 banned the use of demotike in the press (Zaharapoulos and
Paraschos 1993). Freedom of the press was introduced in Portugal in
1820, but frequently interrupted throughout the nineteenth century.
The most important period of press freedom lasted from the over-
throw of the monarchy in 1910 until the start of the Salazar dictator-
ship in 1926. By the time of the revolution in 1974 the Portuguese
press was the weakest in Europe (Seaton and Pimlott 1980; Agee and
Traquina 1984).
The development of the commercial press in Southern Europe was, in
sum,limitedincomparisonwiththeLiberalandDemocraticCorporatist
countries whose histories we will explore in the following chapters. In
Italy and in France, on the other hand, a strong party press developed in
the early twentieth century, which for both countries was part of a long
period of political democracy. In this way their media history is similar
to that of the Democratic Corporatist countries. The Italian Communist
party (PCI) was one of the quintessential mass parties, along with the
German Social Democrats. Like the mass parties of Northern Europe, it
had a dense network of institutions that involved citizens in its organiza-
tional and cultural life – social and sports clubs, cultural organizations,
libraries, economic institutions, and, of central importance, communi-
cations media. L’Unit`a, the main paper of the PCI, was established under
the influence of Antonio Gramsci in 1924 and reached a top circulation
of about 300,000 in the 1960s and a circulation of 700,000 for its Sunday
edition – the highest of any Italian paper (Murialdi 1986). It remained
important into the 1990s, and still exists as a paper of the left, though it
is no longer an official party paper. L’Unit`a played a central role in the
large political subculture that developed around the Communist party in
Italy. Among its activities was the organization of the Festa del’Unit` a, an
annual festival that still takes place in cities around Italy and has always
been an important part of the collective social life of the left. The party
was at the same time crucial to the success of the paper, providing not
only subsidized funding but also distribution through the party’s organi-
zational network. Other parties also established their own newspapers –
Il Popolo of the Christian Democrats and l’Avanti of the Socialists, among
the most important. These newspapers were crucial to the ability of mass
parties to communicate with the public, particularly given the control
of most of the press by industrialists with their own political ties and
ambitions, which we will explore a bit later.

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